BiliaryTractCancer near Montvale, NJ

Biography: Dr. Accordino graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor of science in Pre-medicine with minors in Health Policy and Administration and Biology. She completed her medical degree at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. While in medical school she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society which recognizes high educational achievement. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center and her Medical Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center, where she served as Chief Fellow. During that time, she was awarded a Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award and Merit Award. She also served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Cancer-Related Population Sciences supported by the National Cancer Institute for her work in quality improvement and health outcomes research. Upon fellowship graduation she became an Assistant Professor of Medicine within the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Columbia University. Since her faculty appointment she has received grant funding from multiple agencies including: The American Society of Clinical Oncology, The HOPE Foundation, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, The American Cancer Society, and the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute. Dr. Accordino is currently involved in patient care, clinical research, education, and quality improvement. Dr. Accordino's research aims to improve the quality and delivery of cancer care, and cancer survivorship. Dr. Accordino participates in clinical trials at the local, national, and international level. She also has experience leading multicenter cancer trials through the SWOG Cooperative Group. The overall goal of her research is to improve quality and outcomes within oncology.

Biography: If you need assistance in Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), please call 646-317-6325. Visit Columbia Liver Asian Outreach Office (English | Mandarin) Tomoaki Kato, M.D., is a noted pioneer in multiple-organ transplantation, pediatric and adult liver transplantation. Dr. Kato is Surgical Director of Adult and Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and is a professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Kato is known for unique and innovative surgeries for adults and children, including a six-organ transplant; a procedure called APOLT (auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation) that resuscitates a failing liver by attaching a partial donor liver, making immunosuppressant drugs unnecessary and the first successful human partial bladder transplantation involving the transplant of two kidneys together with ureters connected to a patch of the donor bladder. In a highly publicized case, he led the first reported removal and re-implantation, or auto-transplantation, of six organs to excise a hard-to-reach abdominal tumor. Previously the director of pediatric liver and gastrointestinal transplant and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Kato received his medical degree from the Osaka University Medical School in Japan and received his residency training in surgery at Osaka University Hospital and Itami City Hospital in Hyogo, Japan. He completed a clinical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, in Miami, Florida, where he was subsequently appointed to the surgical faculty in 1997, and promoted to full professor in 2007. He served as a surgeon and senior leader of the liver and transplantation center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, beginning in 1997, and at University of Miami Hospital (previously Cedars Medical Center), beginning in 2004. Dr. Kato is a member of numerous professional and honorary organizations, and the author or co-author of more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. Visit The Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at columbiasurgery.org/liver

Care Philosophy: I have treated patients with cancer for 32 years in private practice and have been the chief of oncology and director oncology at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, NY. I founded the first Cancer Survivorship Program in the region outside of MSKCC. I am interested in how lifestyles and other disorders such as diabetes influence cancer risk and outcomes. I am also interested in cancer genetics and how patients can be proactive in optimizing their quality of life before, during and after treatment.

Biography: Dr. Despina Siolas received her Bachelor of Science with summa cum laude honors from St. John's University. She attended medical school at Stony Brook University, where she was awarded the prestigious E-Trade Financial Scholarship from the Hellenic Medical Society of New York. In addition to her MD degree, Dr. Siolas is the recipient of a Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook for studies she conducted in the lab of Greg Hannon PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She completed her internal medicine residency training and hematology/oncology fellowship at NYU Langone Health. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Siolas conducts research on cancer genes that influence the immune microenvironment using preclinical models of pancreatic cancer and colon cancer. She has authored numerous publications and has received a prestigious Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08) from the National Institute of Health. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and American Medical Association, and Hellenic Medical Society.